Orcas In Captivity Research Paper

Since 1961, at least 156 orcas have been taken out of the wild and forced to perform for the public in captivity. Orcas are social creatures who travel in pods with their siblings, children, and other pod members. When killer whales are taken out of the wild and brought to aquariums like SeaWorld, their lives change drastically. The whales kept in captivity undergo behavioral changes that make it dangerous for both the whale and the humans interacting with them. For example, SeaWorld locations around the world have taken 27 whales out of the wild since 1988. Although 27 may not seem like a very large amount of whales taken into captivity, think about how many adolescent orcas were separated from their families. When a whale is taken into SeaWorld locations, odds are they die in captivity. By …show more content…
Dawn Brancheau, a SeaWorld Orlando orca trainer, was killed by Tilikum during the Dine With Shamu show on February 24th, 2010. She knew so much about orcas and loved Tilikum with all her heart. Unfortunately, Tilikum had other feelings about her. One of the ex SeaWorld trainers, John Hargrove, had an interview with National Geographic magazine about his experiences. He told the interviewer about Freya, a killer whale at a SeaWorld facility in France, and how she attacked him. He stated in the interview that “ She rolled sideways, looking at me under the water, so I could see her eye. Then she opened her mouth. I knew what she was going to do. She was going to put me in her mouth…”(Worrall) Hargrove is describing that working with these whales is dangerous because they seem like they are having fun at first, but they have an ulterior motive. Killer whales are unpredictable and dangerous, they will seem like it's all fun and games at first but then there’s a possibility that they may get agitated and turn against their trainers. Along with the trainers